


Be Wary Of Powerful Magic And Strong Drink

by Netgirl_y2k



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Drunkenness, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-18
Updated: 2010-07-18
Packaged: 2017-10-10 15:51:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/pseuds/Netgirl_y2k
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The AU of <i>Sweet Dreams</i> where the love spell makes Vivian fall for Morgana.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Wary Of Powerful Magic And Strong Drink

In many years time, when Arthur is king of the great and glorious country of Albion, he’ll pass a law banning monarchs from hanging over the shoulders of their court sorcerer and snarking while they’re trying to cast a spell, as that’s the kind of thing that can result in the King of Wales being temporarily turned into a ferret. 

But for the moment, Arthur was still the prince, Merlin was still Camelot’s least appreciated manservant, and King Alined was looming over Trickler making thinly veiled threats as the wizard tried to cast the spell to make Vivian fall in love with Arthur.

It’s hard to concentrate when someone is threatening to have you skinned and covered in bees, that’s probably why Trickler's aim was a tiny bit off.

Of course, nobody discovered the mistake until the next morning.

*

Morgana was having a long lie, recovering from the dreams that had tormented her through the night. And, to be totally honest, sleeping off the wine she’d overindulged in at supper last night, and before supper and at lunch. 

She was woken by someone stroking her hair. She cracked one eye open to see the lady Vivian stretched out on the bed next to her, wearing only a nightgown and toying with the ends of Morgana’s hair. 

Morgana’s first thought was _"Why are people obsessed with watching me sleep?"_ her second thought was_"Huh?"_ and her third thought was _"Oh God, my head…"_

"Good morning, my love," said Vivian and pressed a kiss to the corner of Morgana’s mouth. 

Morgana settled on her second thought. "Huh?" seemed appropriate.

"You have pretty hair," said Vivian.

Morgana gathered together her wine soaked critical faculties and analysed the situation as thoroughly as she could. 

"What?" she said.

"Very pretty hair," continued Vivian. "But I don’t like this nightgown. You can have too much gold brocade, you know." Vivian fingered the neckline of Morgana’s gown and started kissing her way down Morgana’s throat. 

Ah, that explained it. She was still asleep. It wasn’t as though Morgana never had dreams of scantily clad young women clambering into bed with her. Vivian was a very beautiful woman, and it had been a while. It was a sex dream, obviously. 

Vivian half rolled on top of Morgana and slid a knee between her thighs. A very realistic sex dream, Morgana thought. 

The little voice from the back of Morgana’s mind (the one that sometimes popped up with unhelpful observations like _"Uther’s not all that bad, you know"_ and _"Do you ever think there’s something a bit weird about Merlin?"_) wondered how likely it was that she’d have a hangover in a sex dream?

Shut up, Morgana firmly told the little voice. 

Morgana heard the door to her chambers opening. That’d be Gwen arriving. Her maidservant frequently made an appearance in the more interesting of these dreams. 

“Vivian! Morgana!” 

Morgana glanced up to see an appalled looking Arthur framed in her doorway. Right. Okay. Not a dream, then.

Morgana snapped to full wakefulness and her acidic hangover chose that precise moment to make its full presence felt. Bloody _ow_. 

She pushed Vivian back by the shoulders and said, "Good morning, Arthur." She strived for a tone that implied that there was absolutely not a half naked noblewoman in the bed with her hand down Morgana’s nightgown, and that if Arthur was seeing such a thing it was entirely the product of his sick male imagination. "Can I help you with something?"

"I came to tell you the good news, I’m in love."

"Oh, yes. With who?"

"Me, apparently." Vivian made a face and stuck her tongue out. "He brought me chicken. But I only love you," and with that she resumed nuzzling Morgana’s neck. 

"I need a drink," groaned Morgana. 

"Anything for you, my love." Vivian hopped off the bed and padded away in search of wine.

Morgana looked at Arthur hoping for an explanation, or at the very least poorly feigned sympathy.

Arthur gave her a hard look and started unfastening his gauntlet. "You have tainted my honour and that of my love, and I demand recompense." He hurled the gauntlet down at the foot of the bed.

"Vivian," called Morgana, "how are you coming with that drink?"

*

Morgana dressed, then dressed again when Vivian said that her white dress made her look all washed out and made her change, and went to see Gaius for some advice. 

Morgana, Vivian and Arthur crammed into the physician's workshop along with Gaius and Merlin. 

Arthur had spent the entire walk through the castle poking Morgana with his other gauntlet and Vivian had spent it trying to unlace Morgana's bodice. After all that Morgana really felt that Gaius should be more help than he was being. The physician's eyebrow was raised so high that it was in danger of flying off his face entirely.

She looked pleadingly at Merlin for assistance. Arthur's manservant had that look he sometimes got, like he was considering forming a murder-suicide pact with Arthur, whether Arthur wanted to or not.

"Arthur, maybe you should leave Morgana and Vivian alone?" Merlin suggested.

"No," said Arthur sulkily. "I saw her first." He grabbed Vivian's arm and pulled her towards him. Purely on reflex, Morgana grabbed Vivian's other arm and pulled her back. 

"Children," said Gaius in a tone he hadn't used since Arthur and Morgana were tiny, "do you want me to send you to the king?"

"Yes," said Arthur. "Send for my father, he'll tell her that she's not allowed to take my things."

"Yes," said Vivian, snaking her arm round Morgana's waist. "Do you think he'll agree to let us marry?"

"Oh no," said Merlin. 

"I think I'm going to be sick," said Morgana.

*

Uther was not as much help as Morgana might have hoped. 

Standing in the throne room in front of five kings (including the father of the girl who was currently undressing her with her eyes) Morgana sent up a quick prayer to any deities who might be listening: _I swear that I'll stop drinking and plotting to kill the king if you'll just make this horrible day be over._

Morgana could see a vein in Uther's temple throbbing and King Olaf was turning a terrifying shade of red.

"Unhand my daughter at once!" Olaf thundered. 

"Morgana, perhaps you should--" Uther suggested. Morgana attempted to squirm out of Vivian's grasp, this resulted in Vivian giggling cheerfully and getting a quick grope in. At which point Olaf started tearing at the fastenings of his gauntlet in a very determined manner.

"Too late!" Morgana called desperately. "Arthur's already challenged me."

"Yes," Arthur agreed. "I will fight this scurvy dog to the death for the heart of my fair lady."

"Scurvy dog?" hissed Morgana dangerously. Suddenly the idea of beating Arthur to death with his own sword sounded quite pleasant. 

"Don't talk about her that way!" shouted Vivian shrilly. 

"Arthur, please shut up," said Merlin.

Morgana's head hurt, it was too bright in this room, her stomach was trying to vacate her body through her left ear, two of the deadliest warriors in the five kingdoms wanted to fight her to the death, and one of the most beautiful women she'd ever seen was trying to have her wicked way with her when Morgana was too miserable to enjoy it. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Uther," she said, "it's magic. Vivian's been enchanted to love me, and Arthur to love Vivian. It's sorcery."

"Uther," King Alined practically oozed, "you would allow a sorcerer to endanger these peace talks?"

"No. No, of course not. No one would dare practice magic inside this castle."

Typical, thought Morgana. 364 days a year Uther would happily set fire to anyone who so much as thought about magic, the one time Morgana could make use of it and he decided to be rational and salvage his pride and the peace talks rather than go on a witch hunt.

Morgana stormed out of the room with Vivian at her heels. 

"If you're too afraid to fight me yourself," Arthur called magnanimously after her, "I'll let you pick a champion." 

*

King Alined slammed Trickler up against the wall. "You imbecile. I wanted Vivian in love with the prince not the ward. Are you blind as well as stupid?"

"My... My Ki... I... anno... eath."

"What?" Alined growled, releasing his grip on Trickler's throat slightly.

"I said, I can't breath just at the moment."

"That's about to become your permanent situation."

"No, my lord, please. You wanted to sow discord between Olaf and Uther. Do you really think Olaf is happy that his beloved daughter is besotted with Uther's ward?"

Alined chuckled and tossed Trickler aside. "Oh, I would love to see Uther and Olaf right now."

*

Uther poured more wine into Olaf's goblet. "You know, a marriage alliance would benefit both our kingdoms, as I've mentioned to you before."

"I believe it was Arthur that you had in mind then, and I still say they're both too young. Nothing's changed."

"Morgana's older than Arthur, and Vivian seems very taken with her."

"Hmmph."

"And she is her father's sole heir, she basically owns Cornwall."

"Cornwall, eh?" Olaf started to sound interested.

"Valuable piece of land, Cornwall. Beautiful weather. And I understand they have vineyards there these days. Drink up."

*

Morgana normally took great care and attention with her secret messages to Morgause, there was beautiful calligraphy and subtext within subtext. Today she messily scrawled: _Help me! Midnight, the usual place_, and hoped for the best. 

*

Uther and Olaf were still pickling in a barrel of wine and Arthur was frightening Merlin by attempting to write poetry about Vivian, so Morgana was able to sneak out of the castle unobstructed.

"Morgana?"

Mostly unobstructed. 

"Vivian. Hello."

"Where are you going?"

Morgana sighed. "To see an enchantress I know."

"How terribly exciting." Vivian took Morgana's hand and twined their fingers together, and then she frowned and looked confused. "Why?"

"Hopefully to get her to lift the spell from you."

"I'm not enchanted."

"Yes, you are. You and Arthur, both. Neither of you is thinking clearly."

"Neither are you." 

"Yes, but I drank my own body weight in wine last night, I have an excuse."

"Well, I'm coming too," Vivian insisted.

"No, you're--"

"My lady? Lady Vivian? Are you going somewhere?"

God, it used to be so much easier to skulk out of this place at night.

"Gwen. Um. We're..."

"Going to visit a sorce--" 

Morgana stamped as hard as she could on Vivian's foot. "We're going wedding dress shopping."

"What?"

"You said we were--"

"Get on the horse, Vivian."

*

Morgause had done a lot for Morgana, helping to keep her dreams at bay and sympathising with her feelings about Uther, so Morgana politely refrained from trying to strangle her. 

Still, it'd be nice if she'd stop laughing.

"It's not funny," Morgana sulked. 

"No," agreed Morgause, regarding Vivian. "It's sweet. You've brought a friend."

"Vivian isn't my friend. Vivian, hands!" Morgana, for the fifth time since the conversation had begun, removed Vivian's hands from her backside.

"Oh, look," said Morgause, "she's going to cry."

"Morgause, would you just help me, please?"

"I really think that you're old enough to break up with your own girlfriends," said Morgause solemnly 

"It's a spell."

Morgause smirked. "I know it's a spell."

"Oh, very funny. Can you break it?"

"But of course."

"And while we're here, Arthur's been enchanted to love Vivian, any chance of getting that one lifted?"

Morgause cocked her head to one side and thought it over. "I would, but it really will be much easier to take over Camelot if Uther's son is under the influence of a love spell."

"Fair enough. Although if Arthur insists on fighting me to the death then you have to be my champion, okay?"

"Fair enough."

*

The ride back to Camelot was awkward. 

"You should have brought another horse," whined Vivian.

"I didn't hear you complaining on the way out," said Morgana. 

"I was under a powerful love spell!"

"I bet you say that to all the girls."

"Morgana! Vivian!" Arthur called out as their horse trotted back into Camelot's courtyard. He no longer looked love-struck, in fact he looked like his usual irritating self. Maybe Morgause had decided to lift the spell after all?

Gwen was a few steps behind Arthur, she was looking more cheerful than she had when Morgana had left. Her maid had been in a funny mood ever since Arthur had announced his supposedly everlasting love for Vivian. Morgana didn't understand why, it wasn't as though she was the one being challenged to duels. Still, she looked happier now.

"Where have you two been?" Arthur demanded. 

"Finding a champion for your duel tomorrow," Morgana answered climbing down from the horse, Vivian slid down behind her. 

"I, er..." Arthur looked at his boots in apparent fascination. "About earlier. Lady Vivian, my behaviour was appalling and I apologise. Morgana, I-- I-- Oh, just forget it."

"If you're afraid to fight, Arthur, you only need to say."

"I said forget it."

Gwen smiled at Morgana, made a complicated hand gesture and headed after Arthur. 

The prince turned on his heels and cheerfully announced. "Oh, while I remember, my father and King Olaf surfaced long enough to announce that you two are betrothed. Good night, ladies."

Morgana and Vivian looked sideways at each other. "That fight to the death's sounding pretty good about now," said Morgana.

"Hey!" Vivian objected, pinching Morgana's arm as hard as she could. 

"Ow. I suppose it could be worse."

"Yes," Vivian reluctantly agreed. 

"It could be Arthur!" they said in unison.

"At least you can dress yourself, mostly," said Vivian, giving Morgana an appraising look. "Although I was serious about that white dress. You're not wearing that to the wedding, it'd be like marrying the invisible woman."

"And I don't want everything to be in pastels," Morgana countered.

"Lets go and get some wine and talk about it."

"About time, too."

*

_Morgana,  
How do you feel about killing Uther and taking over Camelot at midsummer? - Morgause Xx_

_Morgause,  
Is there any chance we could push it back to august as I'm getting married at midsummer? - Morgana Xx_

_P.S. Would you like to come to my wedding?_


End file.
